Health Care and Revolution

OK, so it appears the two duopoly political parties are going to make some kind of "compromise" on the health care issue which will include "bailing out" the insurance corporations.

"This week we attended a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee where there was broad bi-partisan support for giving billions more to the insurance industry to “stabilize the market.” The government already gives for-profit insurance $300 billion annually and their stock values have risen dramatically since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), so the rush to give them more was disheartening."

(From an article by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese about the Medicare for All/Single Payer issue.)

Our oligarchy representatives from both parties have fucked around for most of this year with the republicans trying to repeal Obamacare, at one point proposing to greatly increase the number of uninsured, and the democrats alternately defending Obamacare and moving toward a more unified position for Medicare for All/Single Payer.

Now they're back from their summer vacations, which all Americans get donchaknow, and are ready to do their service to the oligarchy while pretending to care about the peasants.

"The bi-partisan hearing discussed three main points: making sure that public dollars were available to subsidize insurance costs, reinsuring private health insurers so they would be protected if they had to spend ‘too much’ money on health care and incentives to entice private insurers back into areas that are not profitable. Coincidentally, these were the same points raised in the bi-partisan proposal published this year by the Center for American Progress, a Democratic Party think tank financed in part by health insurance lobbyists. Both parties are clearly on the side of health care as a commodity."

Sounds like the bipartisanship we've grown to know and love doesn't it. Zeese and Flowers however came away optimistic about the process playing out. I don't share their optimism, not yet.

"After meeting with Senator Sanders’ staff, we felt more reassured that his intention is to ultimately create a strong National Improved Medicare for All system. There are many provisions in the bill that are to be applauded – providing care to every person in the United States and offering fairly comprehensive coverage – and a few that we will have to work on – such as including long term care, abolishing investor-owned health facilities and a more rapid transition period. On September 13, if all goes well, the text of the bill will be released and we will assess it

The tide is shifting in the United States. The people have the power to finally make the government do the right thing. No more compromises. No more false solutions. Onward to National Improved Medicare for
All."

Notice the part about the "transition period".

So what's all that mean?

As long as there's a republican majority in either the house or the senate, there's no chance of this happening. The duopoly doesn't play that way. It will be a cold day in hell for a Medicare for All/Single Payer system to be passed in a republican controlled Congress and Senate. Even if the democrats win back the house and/or senate, there isn't enough support at this point to pass something as significant and society and oligarchy altering as a nationalized health care system. So the health care issue is going to be the major issue the democrats will use to try to take back the house and senate. Just like last election with the republicans promising to repeal the ACA. It has to be that way, they have no choice at this point. They can't ignore this now even if they have to pretend there will be the proper solution, eventually. We're hearing a lot of that, eventually.

"We need your support." Sanders will play that to the hilt as will most others active in seeking Medicare for All (Improved). But what does that support mean? It means electing more and better democrats. It means "pressuring" your duopoly politicians. That's how they'll get people to stay in the so called veal pen and not break out to bring down this duopoly political system.

Will that work and how long will all it take? Many years, probably decades when considering the "transition period". That's if all else goes reasonably well in that time period, like no WWIII, no economic disaster, no prolonged violent civil unrest, etc. It's already been over twenty years since semi-serious political activity began regarding the U.S. health care system (under Clinton). It's been over eight years since Obamacare was instituted and we have Trump and the republicans for probably the next three plus years.

Even with all that, do you really think the duopoly political parties, controlled by the oligarchy, are going to take down the giant insurance, pharmaceutical, and medical care corporations that are key parts of the oligarchy? Are we really supposed to rely on the democratic and republican political parties, the oligarchy's representatives, to give us Medicare for All/Single Payer? Is the rest of the oligarchy, like the military/security/intelligence security complex, going to look at what's happening to their oligarchy friends and so "who Nellie"? The medical care/pharmaceutical/medical insurance security complex is even bigger than the MIC and inextricably connected to Wall Street and the Big Banks. We're talking trillions per year.

Do you really think our "politicians" in the two major political parties are going to come up with a plan to take THAT down?

Meanwhile, U.S. imperialism and the accompanying economic and military wars, regime changes, genocides, and war crimes will march on. We will still live in an oligarchy. We'll still be literal slaves to the plutocracy. Climate change will go unaddressed. Jobs will continue to disappear. The rich will continue to get richer, inequality and austerity will increase and capitalism will go into hyperdrive prior to killing us all.

Elections will come and go and we'll get fooled again, bet on that.
Maybe the only way to get a nationalized health care system is the same way we'll end gangster capitalism, imperialism and oligarchy/plutocracy. By forming an independent working/lower class people's movement to bypass the duopoly and give a real voice to all people.

Maybe the only way to get a truly nationalized/socialized health care system is a Revolution to take down the corporate/financial oligarchy, it's political duopoly and end capitalism as we know it.

We'll see, because I'm sure the old "elect more and better politicians" thing will be tried again and again, trying to get the duopoly political parties, our Congress and Senate, to get it done for us. That doesn't fill me with optimism.

If not, she can't do squat. I had a friend. Her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who routinely went off her meds and flipped out. To rescue her, she had to continually go to court and request legal guardianship.

On a different but related subject, I made up my mind and have pretty well decided which continuum care facility I want to go to when I no longer can or want to live at home. I do not want to impose on family nor do I want to put up with their management when the time comes. I imagine old age and death are stressful enough without adding family conflict into it. A cozy private room, audio books on my lap top, and family visits that are filled with love instead of frustration and dread are what I've planned for myself. Agatha Christie, Rex Stout jig saw puzzles, and maybe even c99. Who knows. Cataract surgery was a wonderful gift. I expect to read without glasses for a long, long, time.

@dkmich
I can read without glasses, but need them to drive. I spend more time reading than driving. It fits. TV is a middle point...

She wants legal POA, I am still not sure that I want that. She seems to bend toward saving an inheritance. I went through that with my mother, or rather my local sister did. She would prefer I spend nothing.

If not, she can't do squat. I had a friend. Her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who routinely went off her meds and flipped out. To rescue her, she had to continually go to court and request legal guardianship.

On a different but related subject, I made up my mind and have pretty well decided which continuum care facility I want to go to when I no longer can or want to live at home. I do not want to impose on family nor do I want to put up with their management when the time comes. I imagine old age and death are stressful enough without adding family conflict into it. A cozy private room, audio books on my lap top, and family visits that are filled with love instead of frustration and dread are what I've planned for myself. Agatha Christie, Rex Stout jig saw puzzles, and maybe even c99. Who knows. Cataract surgery was a wonderful gift. I expect to read without glasses for a long, long, time.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

playing on us again. The last time they played this game was during the Bush administration when they said that if we put them into power they would roll back the Bush abuses and end the wars.
Instead Pelosi went back on their promise and here we are 11 years later and both wars are still happening.

This incrementalism wasn't what Bernie was running on during his campaign. Another bait and switch just like Obama's Hoping for Change bait and switch. Even though more people now have health insurance, many of those people who now have health insurance, they still can't afford to use it because their premiums and deductibles are too damn high.
This was supposed to be a step towards single payer, but has anyone in congress been working on it and trying to make it better? Nope. This was the plan, IMO. The ACA was another way to transfer our wealth to the insurance companies. This $300 billion could be used as a down payment for single payer, but this was the only time that Herheinous told us the truth. "Universal health care will never, ever happen".

This is what the democrats do when they are out of power. They will offer us the moon, but they know that they won't keep their promises to us.
Greenwald wrote this article back in ......and he revealed the democrats' game.

Democrats perpetrate the same scam over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates perfectly how it’s played:

Jay Rockefeller has waited a long time for this moment. . . . He’s [] a longtime advocate of health care for children and the poor — and, as Congress moves toward its moment of truth on health care, perhaps the most earnest, dogged Senate champion of a nationwide public health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies.

“I will not relent on that. That’s the only way to go,” Rockefeller told me in an interview. “There’s got to be a safe harbor.”

What did he do when the democrats had the 50 votes to pass it through using reconciliation?

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) threw a wrench into Democratic efforts to get a public option passed through reconciliation, saying that he thought the maneuver was overly partisan and that he was inclined to oppose it. . .

“I don’t think the timing of it is very good,” the West Virginia Democrat said on Monday. “I’m probably not going to vote for that” . . . In making his sentiment known, Rockefeller becomes perhaps the most unexpected skeptic of the public-option-via-reconciliation route. The Senator was a huge booster of a government run insurance option during the legislation drafting process this past year.

In other words, Rockefeller was willing to be a righteous champion for the public option as long as it had no chance of passing (sadly, we just can’t do it, because although it has 50 votes in favor, it doesn’t have 60). But now that Democrats are strongly considering the reconciliation process — which will allow passage with only 50 rather than 60 votes and thus enable them to enact a public option — Rockefeller is suddenly “inclined to oppose it” because he doesn’t “think the timing of it is very good” and it’s “too partisan.” What strange excuses for someone to make with regard to a provision that he claimed, a mere five months ago (when he knew it couldn’t pass), was such a moral and policy imperative that he “would not relent” in ensuring its enactment.

Gee, who couldn't see that coming?
You're right Big Al, this is too keep us in the veal pen. It's too bad that I'm now a vegetarian.

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The Democrats are beyond morally bankrupt. The Party’s very soul has been replaced with pure ratfuckery.

We thought that Senator Sanders was on track to introduce and advocate for a national improved Medicare for All bill, but Tuesday he stated publicly at a Planned Parenthood rally that his priorities are to first defeat the Republican health plan, then to improve the Affordable Care Act with a public option or allowing people to buy-in to Medicare, and then we can work for single payer.

This is the line being used by the Democrats to take the single payer movement off track. It’s the same line that worked so effectively in 2009-10. I wrote about that with Kevin Zeese in 2013 in “Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History.”

We thought that Senator Sanders was on track to introduce and advocate for a national improved Medicare for All bill, but Tuesday he stated publicly at a Planned Parenthood rally that his priorities are to first defeat the Republican health plan, then to improve the Affordable Care Act with a public option or allowing people to buy-in to Medicare, and then we can work for single payer.

This is the line being used by the Democrats to take the single payer movement off track. It’s the same line that worked so effectively in 2009-10. I wrote about that with Kevin Zeese in 2013 in “Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History.”

Sanders will be joined at the convention by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a candidate for governor next year endorsed by the nurses union in large part because of his support for universal healthcare.
...
If we don't fight corporate greed, 'the outcome ... won't be good' Bernie Sanders says
(photo caption)
Sen. Bernie Sanders calls for a coast-to-coast movement to fight greed and oligarchy in a speech May 6, 2017, in Beverly Hills.

One of those bold things is not like the other. Sure he won't bother to scrub all the old "Not the Billionaires" campaign crap from yesterday. MOVE FORWARD Mr. Inside Outside, don't look at the poverty and homelessness here in California because healthcare! D-Value priorities.

I guess if nurses union really gave a shit they'd house and feed people first, fix the collapsed mental health system, keep poors out of jail. Hell no! They want what they want, that's California! Even our unions are fucked up at the top, corrupt lobbyists included. Schizophrenic? I'm bleedin' quadrophenic!

@eyo
what they want appears to be universal healthcare, at least according to the blockquote. is there something wrong with that? it's one of the big 5 for me: food/water, shelter, education, healthcare, justice/security.

Sanders will be joined at the convention by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a candidate for governor next year endorsed by the nurses union in large part because of his support for universal healthcare.
...
If we don't fight corporate greed, 'the outcome ... won't be good' Bernie Sanders says
(photo caption)
Sen. Bernie Sanders calls for a coast-to-coast movement to fight greed and oligarchy in a speech May 6, 2017, in Beverly Hills.

One of those bold things is not like the other. Sure he won't bother to scrub all the old "Not the Billionaires" campaign crap from yesterday. MOVE FORWARD Mr. Inside Outside, don't look at the poverty and homelessness here in California because healthcare! D-Value priorities.

I guess if nurses union really gave a shit they'd house and feed people first, fix the collapsed mental health system, keep poors out of jail. Hell no! They want what they want, that's California! Even our unions are fucked up at the top, corrupt lobbyists included. Schizophrenic? I'm bleedin' quadrophenic!

@UntimelyRippd
I am in no mood to explain how corrupt the current political system is right now, but go on. Donate to your top five and feel good, I am not picking a fight with nurses either.

good luck

#5
what they want appears to be universal healthcare, at least according to the blockquote. is there something wrong with that? it's one of the big 5 for me: food/water, shelter, education, healthcare, justice/security.

of anybody, or any organization that endorses a piece of legislation, sight unseen.

To their credit, PNHP hasn't jumped on that bandwagon--yet!

They still have Conyers' Bill front and center on their website. I'll be interested to read their assessment of Bernie's bill in the upcoming days. And, to find out if he has truly abandoned his public option idea.

Who knows? Maybe it will be a true companion bill to HR 676. We'll know in about 24 hours, I suppose.

Mollie

“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

SOSD - A volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the welfare of Singapore’s street dogs. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome strays to give them a second chance.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish Dramatist & Socialist
"We [corporations] are the government!" Actor John Colicos (1978)

@Unabashed Liberal
the real deal, which from what I've read it is, why is another one from Bernie necessary? I must be missing something about the political process.

of anybody, or any organization that endorses a piece of legislation, sight unseen.

To their credit, PNHP hasn't jumped on that bandwagon--yet!

They still have Conyers' Bill front and center on their website. I'll be interested to read their assessment of Bernie's bill in the upcoming days. And, to find out if he has truly abandoned his public option idea.

Who knows? Maybe it will be a true companion bill to HR 676. We'll know in about 24 hours, I suppose.

Mollie

“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

SOSD - A volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the welfare of Singapore’s street dogs. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome strays to give them a second chance.

works, but from what I understand, with the exception of some funding types of legislation (generated from the House), it's customary to have both a House and Senate bill offered, and voted upon. Then, if both bills pass, they're reconciled after bipartisan negotiations over the differing details in the respective bills. (That's what they called 'regular order,' I think.)

Of course, Conyers' HR 676 has been hanging around since about 2003. Depending on which article you read, Bernie 'may be' going to produce a companion bill. OTOH, several articles I've read, claim that he'll propose a state-based public option plan.

Hopefully, there's someone here who's more knowledgeable than me on this topic.

Mollie

“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

#9 the real deal, which from what I've read it is, why is another one from Bernie necessary? I must be missing something about the political process.

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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish Dramatist & Socialist
"We [corporations] are the government!" Actor John Colicos (1978)

"single payer". There are disagreements on how to get there and I don't know if anyone has any idea how to really go to a socialized system. Maybe there have been some studies conducted, I don't know. That's the dilemma. Capitalism is so entrenched, as well as corporate oligarchy, it's going to take a major upheaval to change it. Which is why it may have to be part of something bigger.